Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
  • Best websites for tracking portfolios?
    My wife and I have a half-dozen investment portfolios due to separate IRAs, Roths, 401Ks and taxable savings. For many years, I have tracked these different accounts on Morningstar, using their portfolio manager section. However, like many others, I have found the M* website to be increasingly troublesome. The main problem is that the website logs me out every time I leave the site, and sometimes while using it, forcing me to log in repeatedly. My internet service has been slow lately, compounding the problem because it often takes a while to log in.
    Can anyone recommend other websites where I can track various portfolios, similar in past functionality to the M* site? That is, where I enter in various funds, shares owned, and view current and past performance over various time periods.
  • IOFIX - I guess it works until it doesn't
    ...absence of high-quality holdings to provide liquidity should have raised concerns for any investor.
    The fund’s chart-topping returns in recent years... should have also raised questions...
    What a bunch of crap. Did this author write a similar story before the collapse entitled "everybody get out asap because this fund is going to lose 1/2 it's value"? Shoulda, coulda, woulda...
  • IOFIX - I guess it works until it doesn't
    From a M* article posted today--
    The most vulnerable strategies in the current environment have been flashing red well in advance. For example, AlphaCentric Income Opportunities (IOFIX), a multisector bond fund that has invested the majority of its assets in mezzanine subprime MBS, has experienced heavy redemptions in recent weeks. Given that the portfolio was roughly 95% invested in nonagency residential mortgage credit, it’s highly unlikely the managers were able to raise cash to meet those redemptions without locking in losses in the current environment. The fund has erased more than 40% of its value for its shareholders since the beginning of March, with most of those losses coming in the last several trading days.
    But that fund’s highly aggressive approach already made it an outlier relative to competitors in the multisector bond category, which is home to funds with a greater appetite for credit-sensitive sectors. Its portfolio chock-full of subordinated mortgage credit avoided by other fund managers, its indeterminate credit quality profile (most of the fund’s holdings were nonrated), and absence of high-quality holdings to provide liquidity should have raised concerns for any investor. The fund’s chart-topping returns in recent years--its trailing three-year annualized return of 10.4% through February 2020 outpaced its next closest competitors’ by a full 300 basis points--should have also raised questions about the risks its managers were taking to achieve those results.
  • brief market news
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-march-26-2020-221723808.html
    Good morning,
    Market very confusing still: unemployment numbers shatter previous records, multiple deaths remain high with COVID19, many more infected/many more counting and still remain critically ill. Hot spots open up in several countries.
    Dows still up today after all those news, think bottom maybe when Dows at 18750s levels last wk?
    maybe good to tiptoe in, DCA and watch closely.
  • Treat with caution: rocketing stocks aren't cause for comfort
    @davfor, is it the same as dead cat bounce in the last two days?
    @Mark, think I will get some adult diapers ? As long as the COVID-19 cases continue to rise, especially New York, the Fed money will do little to calm the market. The unemployment number is coming out soon.
  • TRP Floating Rate - Risk vs Reward
    muni bond funds and high yield munis also lost big recently (and in 2008). Muni funds had huge increases today — 3-5% — which is unheard of for munis. Personally I think most of the recent bond fund drops were due to liquidity issues from traders selling bonds, after stocks dropped so much, and overwhelming the markets.
    I agree. I notice muni money market now yielding 4% comparing to the typical 1% of federal money market funds. This is seldom observed.
    For example,
    Vanguard Federal money market, VMFXX, 7 days yield, 0.82%
    Vanguard Muni money market, VMSXX, 7 days yield, 4.05%
    Liquidity issue?
  • The new coronavirus economy: A gigantic experiment reshaping how we work and live (OEF Ideas?)
    @Crash FSUTX 10 year annualized return at 12.2%. Shown at the top of the US News list; although I treat their list as something to review for thoughts, so I can't comment about the ranking.
    Why not FSUTX? Hell, with Fido; if it matters, minimum investment is $0. No load for such.
    How many on the list are load funds; as I didn't scroll the whole list?
    Good Evening,
    Catch
  • Recapturing Portfolio Loss
    I am also looking at what to prune and what to add. Two global growth funds, MGGPX and BGAFX, have held up amazingly well. I own the former, but consider the latter to be its equal. As of last night neither fund had lost more than 15% YTD, with the Baron fund at around -9%. All this could change in an instant, but I could see jettisoning APFDX and cutting back on DSENX in favor of one or both of MGGPX or BGAFX. Kind of surprised the Baron fund is not a Great Owl.
    I just looked up MGGPX and can't believe it currently only lost 13% this year. Again, I thank Ted for that one :-)
  • ? DSENX-DSEEX a little help please if you can
    I just looked at CAPE since its inception, 7.5y ago, 10/12, and noted its >10% superiority to SPY. (Even moreso compared w/ the div and low-vol etfs listed above.)
    So if you are a long-termer (at 73- I have only so many terms left) I believe you will be hard-pressed to find something reliably outperforming SPY over time. Would like to know examples.
    Did not look to MFOP to screen for LCG like the named winners from TRP and Fido, also Polix and Akre, yet I am sure they have outperformed CAPE. But who else?
    Given AGG's relative outperformance recently, am thinking it plus CAPE in some proportion could be my new retirement grail.
  • Negative rates come to the US: 1-month and 3-month Treasury bill yields are now below zero
    In case you missed it...
    The one-month and three-month Treasury bill yields turned negative Wednesday.
    “This is part and parcel of the whole flight to quality thing,” said Kim Rupert, managing director of global fixed income at Action Economics.
    “Everyone is expecting the Fed to be lower for longer, and I mean longer. The whole bias is for yields to go lower. I would not rule out the front end of the curve going negative.”
    https://cnbc.com/2020/03/25/negative-rates-come-to-the-us-1-month-and-3-month-treasury-bill-yields-are-now-negative.html
  • Recapturing Portfolio Loss
    If you believe it is possible to recapture the loss to your portfolio, to whatever level you choose, what investment option(s), (large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap, international large, small, emerging market or gold/silver) would you place your bets and what funds would you have the most confidence for the option(s) you choose.
    I do have great confidence in David Giroux (spelling?) at PRWCX. I believe his long-term play in utilities is smart. It's still my biggest holding, even after this Virus Crash. I'll not be switching horses in mid-stream.
    Ever since early FEBRUARY, wifey and me have been TRYING to get her 403b out of MassMutual and into something else. VEIRX has fallen hard, because it holds a lot of the big-name "pillars" of the current Market. By now, we've rejected VLAAX. ZERO customer service. Papers were filed, all with Signature guarantee. Over a month has gone by, and the phone agents--- well, all they can do is TALK to you. They can't do for some other employee what that other employee should have done...
    ...So, now, we have settled on Bruce BRUFX. We've requested the paperwork. It hasn't arrived yet. I figure the shut-downs over coronavirus are gonna make this whole thing a not very slick, swift and easy process. Still, the MAIL comes as expected, every day.
    I moved to overweight bonds in 2019. RPSIX, PRSNX and PTIAX. Did it help during this current precipitous Market downturn? Not as expected. But ya, my portf is down quite a bit less than it would have been. But the bond funds fell, too! That fact truly smells. "Like Mango Chutney and burnt hair." ....
    I'm sticking with my picks. The others, not already mentioned here, are PRIDX and PRDSX. They are deliberately small and very small slices of the portfolio, respectively.
  • Treat with caution: rocketing stocks aren't cause for comfort
    Hi Sir @_Old_Joe, I am always wrong in terms of market timing, hope to stay that way. We are indeed 4-6 weeks behind China, so hopefully by next month, warmer weather at least in Southern States/less virus transmissions, things maybe more Rosy. I read 85% of structures very similar to SARS, may not to do well in warmer weather/viral loads significantly reduced and unable to stay around in hot /sunny surface much longer. Hope this horrific virus go away in few months. Of course few patients with immuno-compromised states may still get problems even in [summer flu]. Hope curve significantly flattened soon.
    Interesting article about current market conditions from marketwatch:
    Stock market’s historic bounce may signal ‘near-term bottom,’ but remember what happened in 1987 and 2008
    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stock-markets-historic-bounce-may-signal-near-term-bottom-but-a-retest-of-the-low-like-1987-and-2008-is-still-a-possibility-2020-03-25?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
  • Treat with caution: rocketing stocks aren't cause for comfort
    ...and while you're at it Mr Rono, you might as well add sit down restaurants to your list...
    Really tough to see many folks in those segments lose their livelihood but I think many folks are going to realize how much money they have spent eating out at a loud, packed eatery where the food quality is so-so, the service is indifferent and you spend a week's worth of groceries on one meal...and the mark up's on a few drinks is outrageous... and found out, hey I can cook these meals at home at a fifth of the cost...
    I think we're going back to the 1960's...folks traveled to their lake house, maybe drove, not flew down to Florida, went camping, grilled out in their backyard, drank a few Schlitz's, only folks who had photos from overseas were in the military, eating out was for special occasions only not couple times a week....and WE FREAKING HAD REAL MANUFACTURING JOBS HERE rather than overseas...come to think of it, a little before my time but I believe most folks had savings accounts, did not own stocks...after all this baloney, I wonder if folks will have had enough of the chicanery of what the so called market is these days....
    Good health to all, take care
    Baseball Fan
  • Future of financial markets from Fidelity
    This excerpt seemed worth noting:
    My back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio in mid-February has now become a 51/49 portfolio, entirely on the basis of market action. This is very large drift in a very short time. Given the many trillions of dollars in assets that follow some sort of multi-asset class approach, the coming rebalance could well be in the range of a few hundred billion.
    Automatically re-balancing (selling bonds that appear to be getting hammered right now as well) doesn't seem so helpful to one's portfolio.
    In the article, he talks about government bonds which are usually Treasury bills, (there are Treasury notes, and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS))
    For YTD treasuries are up nicely. IEI(iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF) is up 5.5%.
  • Future of financial markets from Fidelity
    This excerpt seemed worth noting:
    My back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that a 60/40 stock/bond portfolio in mid-February has now become a 51/49 portfolio, entirely on the basis of market action. This is very large drift in a very short time. Given the many trillions of dollars in assets that follow some sort of multi-asset class approach, the coming rebalance could well be in the range of a few hundred billion.
    Automatically re-balancing (selling bonds that appear to be getting hammered right now as well) doesn't seem so helpful to one's portfolio.
  • Recapturing Portfolio Loss
    @charles -assuming you meant this > "Assess your portfolio--but don't obsess"?
    Thanks ! not obsessing just trying to make lemonade. I am close to retirement, but still running business. These are all in taxable accounts. I am not touching my 401k .
  • Explainer: Trump has little power to restart U.S. economy
    Trump is milking his daily press briefings to juice his poll numbers, much like many governors have done in the past during hurricanes and other natural disasters, or George Bush after 9/11. NC’s former Republican governor Pat McCrory employed this tactic after a bad hurricane hit NC, but he still failed to get re-elected because the voters finally began to realize how incompetent he was.
  • Explainer: Trump has little power to restart U.S. economy
    What 45 is saying is really "I need my money so let's get out there so the COVID-19 virus can do it's work." Although he would never say COVID-19.